A word coined by Stephen Colbert. It means starting useless and unnecessary projects for the sake of creating jobs. In this sense, republicans in the U.S
government have been advocating to literally waste money on things that they don't need or want just to save a small number of jobs. The reality, is that the U.S spends trillions of dollars on a defence budget and most of the money is being pocketed by defence contractors who are backed by members of congress. In other words, the U.S defence program is a funnel that gives away money to large corporate interests. The military doesn't want any more tanks, but they keep building them and leaving them in a Nevada dessert.
The U.S
government spent $50 million each on 21 C-27J Cargo Planes only to have them shipped to an
Arizona Boneyard. Ohio Senators fought for this plan because it would save 800 jobs. You do the
math. That's a cost of $1.05 billion divided by 800 jobs which equals $1.3 million per job! All of that money could have instead been used for food stamps and things that will actually
help america get back on its feet. That same money, if it had been spent wisely, could have potentially created hundreds of thousands of
high paying jobs and something the U.S could actually use.
Another waste of money is a $400 billion F35 Fighter jet, which still doesn't
work well, costs have been overrun, and the government claims its too big to
kill because of 133,000 jobs. That's a cost of $3 million per job!
